The Department of Health has confirmed the 6th case of Covid-19 in the country during a press briefing on Saturday.
DOH said the patient is the 59-year-old wife of the 5th Covid-19 case, described as a 62-year-old Filipino who had no previous travel outside the country who frequented a Muslim prayer hall in Greenhills, San Juan City.
The 5th case, said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III the “first case of local transmission in the country.”
With this, the DOH chief raised the Covid-19 alert in the country to Code Red Sub-level 1 as “preemptive call” to alert all concerned, including national and local governments and public and private health care providers for a “possible increase in suspected and confirmed cases” of Covid-19.
Duque sid that he had also recommended to President Rodrigo Duterte the declaration for a state of public health emergency in the Philippines to enable heightened contact tracing of those who may have had interaction with the latest three confirmed local cases so far.
As of March 7, there are a total of 46 patients under investigation in the Philippines, 15 of whom are in Central Luzon, and 640 discharged PUI cases.
